


The Wheels Just Don't Fall Off...

by OurUnsungHeroes42344



Category: Castle
Genre: AU, Angst, Gen, Ryan-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-06
Updated: 2016-04-06
Packaged: 2018-05-31 16:28:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6477565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OurUnsungHeroes42344/pseuds/OurUnsungHeroes42344
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>...The Entire Car Blows Up</p>
<p>In Ryan's mind the ends justified the means because of what he did his friends are alive. What might've happened if he'd gone by himself. Ryan centric. AU of Always</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Wheels Just Don't Fall Off...

**Author's Note:**

> Warning, just know yourself when it comes to all means of death

The wheels don’t just fall off, the entire car blows up

 

'I'm so sorry,' is his last thought before the barrel of the gun explodes.

 

Just over an hour earlier...

'What the hell is taking so long?' For too long he'd been pacing around the 12th Precinct, waiting for an update from Beckett and Esposito. It'd been too long since he'd seen them hours earlier that very day. 

Glancing at the screen Detective Kevin Ryan confirms that the GPS tracked car rented by Cole Maddox (or whoever the hell he actually is) is still pinging from the same five block radius. Shooting a glance at Gates' office, Ryan jots down the approximate address and pulls his coat on. 

He feels Gates' eyes on him all the way to the elevator and just before he can push the button a firm hand grabs his shoulder. "Going somewhere, Detective?" 

Ryan spins slowly around, casually depressing the call button. "Captain Gates. I was just heading to the morgue. Dr. Parish has something new on the case," he lies desperately.

"I see," she replies.

Thankfully the elevator dings and the door opens, Ryan backs inside, hand heading discreetly towards the 'close' button. "I'd hate to keep her waiting. Is there anything else, Captain?"

"Be sure to come back and update me on Dr. Parish's findings within two hours, Detective," instructs the captain, emphasizing the unsaid, 'I can track your phone and car.'

"Yes, Sir," he replies closing the door with a sigh. 'I am so screwed.'

A good fifteen minutes later, shorter than it would've taken him had he been driving anywhere close to the speed limit, Ryan screeches to a halt next to Beckett's car. 

Ryan exits his vehicle and immediately draws his weapon before entering the building. There he runs into the desk manager, Ryan flashes his badge and the man directs him to the third floor. He pockets his badge and returns his hand to the gun before making his way up two flights of stairs. Cautiously, Ryan opens the door and enters the hallway, gun first. 

He spots the open door immediately and as quickly and quietly as he can Ryan enters the apartment only to stop short upon encountering the unconscious form of Javier Esposito. 

Rushing to his partner's side, caution somewhat thrown to the wind, Ryan puts his fingers to his partner's neck, holding his breath. Ryan breathes a sigh of relief, Esposito has a pulse, that and a nasty bump on his head. 

It's then he hears a eerily familiar feminine yell. "Beckett!"

Deciding that Esposito is fine for the moment Ryan hurtles out of the apartment and up the stairs marked 'roof'. Just before he hits the door Ryan tells himself to slow down and stop acting like a damn rookie. Taking a deep breath and steadying his grip on his gun, Ryan pushes the door to the roof open and spins in an arc, scanning for Maddox.

He hears Beckett yelling for Castle again and he pushes forward towards the sound. He stops in confusion and then horror when he sees a gloved hand gripping the rooftop. "Beckett!"

He rushes forward tossing himself towards her, hands outstretched as her hand disappears from the ledge. He's caught her. Pulling with all his might, Ryan hauls Beckett up and she grabs the ledge with her free hand. 

A shadow looms over both of them and something connects hard with his head. Ryan drops Beckett's hand and crumples to the ground. Strong gloved hands twist his arms behind his back and a knee presses his chest to the gravel.

"Ryan!" Beckett screams, holding onto the ledge now with both hands. 

"Naughty, naughty, naughty, Detective Ryan, didn't anyone tell you? Detective Beckett here has to be eliminated. We can't have you saving her, now can we?" Cole Maddox tuts in his ear. 

Beckett hollers again as she loses her grip, now hanging by one hand again. Ryan catches sight of a needle before he feels a prick in his neck and Maddox swiftly empties the contents into his body. 

Ryan struggles beneath his captor but a blow to the gut winds him for a moment and Maddox lifts his head up so he can easily see Beckett. 

Kate's eyes connect with his one last time filled with fear and anguish, anger and sorrow before she mouths the word. 'Goodbye.' Kevin's eyes widen with realization and he struggles desperately. But it's too late. Kate loses her grip on the ledge and then in slow motion she falls away from him, growing smaller and smaller before...

"NO!" Ryan yells in anguish while above him Maddox laughs.

"You see, Detective Ryan, Detective Beckett was getting much too close to some very sensitive information regarding my employer so she had to be silenced. You, on the other hand can be of some use to me. Yes, I can see it now: ‘Suicidal cop takes his own life after murdering his partners’."

Maddox pulls Ryan's handcuffs off his belt and closes the first metal cuff around his wrist, then the other, squeezing much too tight but he can barely feel it. Whatever Maddox injected him with is doing its job quickly. 'This can't be happening. This isn't real.'

Maddox hauls him to his feet and perhaps it's the shock or the blow to his head but Ryan doesn't struggle in the slightest. Maddox drags him over to a piece of piping sticking up through the roof, that runs through the building and zipties the already bound detective to the piping. "I'll be right back, Detective, don't go anywhere."

He walks away laughing. Ryan is numb. 'This can't be happening. This can’t be happening.' He thinks this over and over again, as if thinking it will make it true. 'You're dreaming, Ryan. Snap out of it. You're safe at the precinct, you fell asleep at your desk, Javi's getting coffee and Castle’s annoying Beckett per usual. This is just a nightmare and once you wake up it'll all go away. This isn't real.'

But it is. 

Maddox returns dragging Esposito behind him, literally.

Maddox has cuffed Javier and he's still unconscious. Maddox lays him out a few feet away from Ryan and then he returns to his side. Maddox pulls Ryan's gun from his holster. Ryan protests weakly but the drugs have done their job well. Maddox walks out of Ryan's limited line of sight and returns a few minutes later with a barstool, probably from the apartment. Maddox picks a still unconscious Esposito up and props him up in the chair before returning to Ryan's side. 

Maddox stands and points Kevin's gun at Javier's heart, he grins cruelly down at him. "Say Goodbye, Detective Ryan."

Through the drug induced haze something clicks in Kevin's mind. "NO! NO! NO!" He struggles as much as he can but the drugs slow his movements and weaken them significantly. There's nothing he can do but watch in horror as Maddox tightens a gloved finger on the trigger of his gun. 

Javier opens his mocha colored eyes, finally regaining consciousness. Cocoa eyes meet crystal blue for one brief moment before...

BANG! 

The gun goes off and the lights in Javier Esposito's eyes go out, his body topples from the chair and lands in a heap, sightless eyes staring at a sky he no longer saw. 

"NO! God, please, NO!" Kevin yells in anguish his voice raw. 

Maddox drops the smoking gun on Ryan's groin, silencing him for a moment. He tosses the chair away and returns Esposito to his former position, splayed out on the ground at Ryan's feet. Maddox uncuffs Esposito and spreads his arms out. Sightless cocoa eyes stare at Ryan who continues to scream. 

Eventually Ryan's screams turn to wracking sobs that shake his entire body. Maddox takes the chair with him off the roof and when he returns the chair is gone. Maddox returns to Ryan's side and pulls off his shoes and socks before he closes the metal of Esposito's cuffs around his ankles. Maddox pulls out a wicked looking knife and cuts the zipties holding Ryan to the piping.

As soon as he's free, Kevin throws himself at Javier's body, trying to reach his partner even though he knows it's too late. Maddox easily stops him, grabbing his shirt collar and tossing him towards the ledge Kate fell from. "Nuh uh uh, Detective Ryan. We wouldn't want to tamper with evidence, now would we?"

Maddox drags Ryan towards the ledge and pins him to the edge with a heavy boot, forcing him to stare down at Beckett. Maddox pulls out Ryan's gun again and fires three shots, each one hitting their mark. Kevin squeezes his eyes shut until Maddox drags him back to the piping. 

"Any ideas on how you want to commit suicide, Detective?" Maddox asks. "No? Well then let's just go with your gun."

Maddox props Ryan up against the piping and uncuffs his ankles, replaces his shoes and socks before uncuffing his hands. Ryan knows he should fight back, try to escape, but the combined effects of shock and drugs render him paralyzed. 

Maddox puts Kevin's gun in his hand and wraps his own gloved hand around his. Maddox pulls his arm up to his head and Kevin feels the still warm steel press against his temple before Maddox cocks the gun and whispers, "Goodbye, Detective Ryan."

'I'm so sorry,' is his last thought before the barrel of the gun explodes. Everything vanishes as the bullet pierces his skull and enters his brain. 

 

About an hour later Captain Victoria Gates pings Detective Kevin Ryan's phone and car, finding them both with Detective Katherine Beckett's phone and Detective Javier Esposito's as well. Cursing under her breath, Captain Gates collects a team of uniforms and arrives at the building close to half an hour later. 

Gates sends units around the sides of the building to surround it as well as search for any sign of Maddox. A few minutes later her radio crackles to life and everyone circles up around a still form lying amongst the trash. 

Gates pushes her way through the group to come face to face with the broken body of Detective Katherine Beckett. Her limbs splayed out at all wrong angles, blood coming from her mouth, three bullet holes in her chest. 

Choking back on the bile that rises in her throat, Gates orders someone to make the call and tell her about the rest of the building. "Captain Gates you need to come to the roof, we may have found...I'm actually not sure what we found."

Gates climbs the stairs to the roof and finds one of the teams she'd sent out waiting for her, pale and silent from horror. Gates freezes when the body of Detective Javier Esposito catches her eye. His chest is soaked with blood from a single shot that must've hit his heart and directly across from him lies Detective Kevin Ryan. The gun issued to him by the state of New York lying next to him, a bullet hole in his head. 

"Get CSU out here right away! I want to find the scum who did this and arrest him personally!" Gates orders. 

 

A few days later Captain Victoria Gates reluctantly closes the murder case of Detectives Katherine Beckett and Javier Esposito. She'd kept the press completely out of it and she hadn't informed anyone who wasn't at the scene or CSU.

 

Captain Gates picks up the phone and calls the first of four numbers. An hour later, Dr. Lanie Parish, Jim Beckett, Jenny Ryan, Richard and Alexis Castle and Martha Rodgers sit in one of the twelfth's meeting rooms.

"Thank you all for coming and I wish it were for a happier reason but I'm afraid it's not. Three days ago we discovered that... that Detectives Beckett and Esposito were murdered by Detective Ryan who then committed suicide."

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm a terrible person, I know. This may seem a little extreme but Javi's reaction at the end of Always and the beginning of season 5 pissed me off.


End file.
